10,000 feet

today we set out for a 6 gap killer. Only 85 miles though. Well, off the bat I will mention that much like the day before our fearless leader "Jay bear” whom has been here before, miss calculated again. The ride turned into 97 miles with just shy of 10,000’ feet of vertical gain. If you don’t know how much that is. Its like that hardest Tour D’ France mt. stage ever!! Well maybe not but pretty hard. first climb same as yesterday. Second not so long 2-3 miles not so steep 5%. So far riding easy level 3, - level 3. third climb. 6 miles not so steep in the beginning. Then kicked upa bit mare 6% with a few pitches of 7-8. and we hammered! Kicking up the pace hard. Jay-Baer and Joe dropped off quickly due to there training. So it was Beerman me and Eric Person. After a strong long pull from Eric I came through and Beerman was dropped but still close behind eric and I traded pulls keeping the pace high 15 MPH or so. faster if the grade eased a bit slower if it kicked up. in the last mile my HR was 190 or so. And I was in that 4+ level andin full flight. I didn’t fell super, the drive down was still in me. After yet another great decent we stopped for some eats and water and were off again. Andrew Knight, founder of the team and fantastic cyclist was down for the ride today. He turned off early to head back to Atlanta. The real job has been keeping off the bike guite a bit this yr. we headed out to the approach to Brass town ball. This one started to get into the legs after only a couple of miles. Then straight down, yes another great decent! Hard right hand turn and up another one. 4-5 miles 5-6% on this one and kept in tempo (level 3) as we had the last. 10 miles after that we hit the final climb, Hog Pen Gap. I have done some hard climbs in my time and this one may have been the hardest. 7 miles, and the last 4 were at lest 10-12 percent the whole time. Then it rolled a bit with some more climbing to really put the nail in the coffin. Killer. my legs buckled under the presser. I could barley turn them over. And the pain wasn’t sweet. It was that rusty, your in over your head pain. I will say that the car drive was to blame but I will also admit that the blistering pace we set mid ride was surly to blame as well. The decent was the fastest and longest I had been on. 2 guys in the group hit over 60. In the last 8 miles on the flats we fell into a pace line and knocked out the last 30’. Not hard just an honest “lest get home” pace. 23 MPH avg or so. Home was a pleasant sight. The short climb to get there wasn’t. tomorrow will feature a shorter easy ride and I will welcome it. Only 2 days and I am kicked. off to bed I have 8 hours of sleep to catch up on!